Sunday, January 27, 2008

So... if you happen to be a fan of contra dancing, and you live in Santa Cruz or the greater San Francisco Bay Area, and you're Queer (or maybe you're straight and you just want to dance as whatever gender you please,) there's now a Queer Contra group in Santa Cruz. Over the next couple of weeks, a number of us will be holding a few meetings to try to organize a series of dances and we hope to announce specific dates, times and locations soon. The group is just now forming, so if you want to influence the "when and where" of this group, this is your chance...

Contra dancing is a form of english and celtic inspired folk dancing that to the untrained eye may look a bit like square dancing, but with considerably less pomp and a greatly relaxed dress code. Contra dances generally feature live music ranging from folk to bluegrass to hardcore celt-punk. Lessons for new dancers are generally always provided prior to dances, and the prevailing attitude is "if you mess up, don't sweat it, just try to recover as best you can." (And remember... if all else fails... Balance and Swing!)